They All Lie

Fact and fiction about the failed gun-control bill.

Recently the US Senate defeated the controversial gun-control bill. The liberal media, government and the president were quite ticked off and frustrated, and all kinds of accusations were thrown about.

I followed the entire affair on the TV including CNN, MSNBC and Fox. I quickly dismissed MSNBC as too biased in their reporting. The other two leaned somewhat left or right, but that's what I wanted so I could get a balanced view.

In the president's speech, he accused the NRA of being the main villain and of having blatantly lied about the supposition that if we had gun show background checks, it would lead to gun registration and eventually confiscation.

That is true, the NRA did say that, because I received literature to that effect. But did they lie?

The president argued that under the defeated gun bill, it would be illegal for anyone to require gun registration and if they did, they would go to jail for 15 years in federal prison.

Now, I'm a 40-year-plus member of the NRA, so when my president accuses my representatives of lying, I wanna know the truth! So I decided to research the gun bill for myself and see just what was the straight skinny.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania was a main sponsor of the bill and he has (had?) an A-rating of approval from the NRA; he said anyone could have examined the bill via the web because it has been on it for weeks.

He was correct, but I had a very difficult time finding said bill; it didn't have a senate number to look up nor a gun-bill title. After much, much time I found it obscurely buried under public works! Evidently Sen. Toomey and his supporters of the bill didn't want too many folks to examine it! So much for transparency!

As with all legislation, the bill is long and complicated and in reality, it has buried parts that would be a liability to both the left and the right-leaning gun owners. So that was the first real deception; in my considered opinion that deception is the same as a lie. The bill isn't just about gun shows, which is what the gun control side was telling us.

Concerning the NRA, they indeed did lie about the fear of eventual gun registration; the president was correct in his accusations. The bill states that no one can require anyone to register a gun; it prevents that from happening.

Then the president told a lie; he stated that if someone required registration, they would go to prison for 15 years. But the bill doesn't say that; it says that a convicted person would be subject "up to 15 years." That nebulous statement could mean one day or one week. There was no minimum time stated.

The next day after the bill's defeat, I received a statement from the NRA. They conveniently didn't address the president's accusation, but delivered another statement: that they had prevented a bill which would have violated the rights of individuals to sell or give their guns to relatives or friends or to sell privately to other individuals.

Hmmm? I looked up that, too, in the bill; the NRA lied again. There was no provision for that at all. But now we enter a slippery slope. Toomey and his supporters do not mention a portion that is buried, which would prevent a private citizen from selling to another private citizen if they openly market the sale, via Internet, poster or ad in the local paper! That goes far more than just gun shows as was being represented!

Then the wording gets cloudy. It could well be construed that both seller and buyer must do a background check by the FBI!

The lie here is that anti-gun people have said that the bill only deals with gun shows and the Internet, not individuals.

Let me address still another lie by the anti-gunners. I worked in a gun store for nearly three years. Quite a few people bought guns on the Internet. In EVERY INSTANCE the sellers had to ship the gun to an Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealer like us; then the buyer had to do an instant background check by the FBI. If he/she failed, they would not be given the gun, even though they had paid for it!

So this thing about indiscriminate sales via the web is not true; it is already strongly federally regulated.

But before you think I'm picking only on the so-called left, here is another lie from the gun supporters. There is a group known as the National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF). I don't belong to them, but they recently sent me literature saying that they intercepted a Justice Department letter that purportedly said the government's real agenda was total gun confiscation. I looked up the Justice memo, and it stated that they believed that the current bill and any type of background check would not have stopped the gun violence in the last couple of years, nor would it in the future. It was useless legislation. They gave no remedies and they never mention gun confiscation!

But the NSSF incorporated an Australian editorial saying that gun confiscation, via checks and registration first, was the only way to stop gun violence. They lied! Remember, whether you are a leader on the right or left or middle, fear controls!

Still another deception by the bill's sponsors and the supporters was again buried deep inside; it concerns interstate travel with firearms. In the proposal, all firearms in a vehicle must be locked in a container unloaded, and the ammo locked in another container, if you go over a state line. Consoles and glove boxes do not qualify as locked containers!

Let me say here that I know both liberals and conservatives who own handguns for protection, and they carry them in their vehicles when they go away. Not a few even have concealed handgun permits.

Now let's say that you travel from New Mexico to Arizona or Texas; both recognize our permits. But even though you are "state legal," you would be violating federal law if you carry a loaded firearm on your person or in your vehicle. It gets worse. If you are in any state other than your own and in a motel it would be illegal to have a loaded gun there! It is also nebulous whether if you have a condo in Arizona and you could have kept a loaded gun there for protection, since you are interstate with that gun. And if you live in New Mexico, you couldn't buy a handgun out-of-state, period!

One last misconception by the gun opponents: While the NRA has told blatant lies, they are not the main villain, even though their opponents would tell us so. They are not the main organization that defeated the bill.

There is a little-known, well-moneyed and powerful lobby known as the Gun Owners of America; it was they who actually intimidated senators and said that if they voted "yes," they would be voted out of office. The NRA was the fall guy.

As for me, to be truthful I'm glad that this nebulous gun lobby did defeat the bill. While I was in full support of gun show instant background checks, I definitely was not for those hidden agendas! Had the bill been solely about gun shows, I believe that it would have passed and maybe even endorsed by the lobbies.

What riles me is that none of the gun lobbies brought up these hidden agendas either.

In the end, the bill was a lie; it wasn't all about what everyone said it was.

It appears to me that everyone in power lies to further their own agendas, the public be danged. Remember that fear controls and the best way to accomplish that is through lies.

As for me, if you lie to me once, then I will never trust you again, period! And that applies to the right, left or moderate.

Keep the sun forever at your back, the wind forever in your face, and may The Forever God bless you.